Firstly, I am so glad to hear you had emergency savings to fall back on!

I often find people can have a level of guilt for using emergency savings but, that's what it's there for!

Real, unexpected (often expensive) unplanned things that pop up... like the car breaks down, you get sick or like a recent Greenhouse member mentioned, the fridge decides to die unexpectedly!

There is no silver bullet here. But, you can build it back up! Don't let it defeat you into inaction.

Yes, it can be a long journey to build it back up, especially if you aren’t back to full health yet, but there are two key elements to consider: Money coming in and money going out. To that point, here are some thoughts, ideas and strategies to consider:

Take Stock:

After the shock of ‘the thing’, you need to recalibrate and get your game plan reset.

List out all of your expected income and do a detailed cashflow forecast (with all your outgoings), so you can clearly see what your life costs and what might be in there that can be pulled back or stripped out completely to help you boost your savings over the coming months.

ACTION: Forecast how much surplus you have and how long its going to take to build back up your savings.

Check You Super:

Might be a strange one, but if you took time off because you were sick, you might be covered with Income Protection through your superannuation account (sometimes called Salary Continuance).

You would be shocked at the amount of people who have no idea what they are covered for inside Super and you would hate to miss out on claiming if you had a legitimate issue and met the qualifying criteria.

ACTION: Call your Fund and ask what insurance covers you have (you may also realise you need to review your insurances more broadly from the exercise) and also what the terms are to be eligible to claim.

Set a Money Challenge:

You can decide if this is a challenge to bring in extra income (maybe as you pointed out, selling clothes or things you don't need) or by doing paid market research or looking at tasks through platforms like Airtasker to do tasks to bring in some quick and easy cash.

Or, you can decide to make it a spending challenge and really limit the spending you do over a period of time. Maybe you ditch some creature comforts for a little bit and squirrel that straight into your emergency savings bucket.

This generally should only be done for short, sharp sprints in my experience... as most people can go without new shiny things for a little bit when they have a clear goal that they want to achieve, but it can feel like quite a slog when you are going without for a very long period of time (although shout out to my Aunty who spent 5 years saying no to going out and playing scrabble at home to save for a house deposit on a minimum wage!).

ACTION: Consider if a money challenge is right for you and how you are going to approach it. Track your progress to give you a little pep in your step as you hit progress milestones. PS. Make sure if you have a job, you're being paid correctly for your skills and experience against the market rate... otherwise it might be a challenge to get you back to full health and working on getting a promotion, pay rise or new (better paying) job.

Get help!

In this cost of living quagmire many people are finding themselves in, you need to know there is help out there. If you have a mortgage, you could always call your bank and discuss financial hardship arrangements (noting this often will extend the life of your loan but can be helpful in genuine times of crisis or distress), or your energy/internet/phone provider may be able to assist with a payment deferral or payment plan that better suits you current circumstances. Be sure to make sure you’re getting the best deal on these first, as you may be able to negotiate or move providers if someone is offering something better. If you are really in a bad spot I would recommend reaching out to The National Debt Helpline who have free services you may benefit from.

Good luck!

Jess

Have a money dilemma?

Money dilemmas can be a nightmare! They can leave you up all night ruminating about what to do, have you feeling alone and isolated or just plain ol' stuck. So, we are here to help. I am going to tackle one a week and give you my unbiased, no BS general thoughts on how to tackle your conundrum. We would love for you to send yours (or someone you know) in. 

Obvs all of this is general advice only... especially important to note any and all of the comments above do not take into account your objectives, financial situation or needs. Before acting on any information, you should consider the appropriateness of the information provided and the nature of the relevant financial product having regard to your objectives, financial situation and needs.